Murasaki
What's special about Murasaki
Japanese purple-skinned, white-fleshed. Sweet, dry, chestnut-like.
Growing this variety
Murasaki follows the same growing basics as Sweet Potato. Variety-specific maturity above; everything else below applies to the whole Sweet Potato family.
Germination
Spacing & depth
How to plant
Sweet potatoes are grown from rooted stem cuttings called slips, not seed. Suspend a supermarket tuber half-submerged in water on a warm sill; when 6-in sprouts appear, twist them off and root in water for 1 week. Plant slips into loose ridged soil after nights are warm. Dig gently before frost.
Grower's tip
Cure dug roots at 80–85°F and 85% humidity for 10 days — that converts starch to sugar and heals nicks. Then store at 55–60°F for months.
Soil preferences
Deep, loose, stone-free sandy loam — rocks and clumps fork roots.
6.0–7.0
Avoid fresh manure or heavy nitrogen (causes hairy or forked roots). A light compost and rock phosphate work well.
Watering
Steady moisture — 1 in per week. Uneven watering causes cracking.
Deep soaking; avoid shallow daily watering that keeps roots near the surface.
Overwatered: cracked or rotted roots, foliage disease. Underwatered: woody, hot-flavored, or bitter roots.
Prefers top-watering — Top-water at the base. Wet foliage spreads late blight and early blight; keep leaves as dry as possible.
Temperature tolerance
60–75°F (15–24°C)
45–65°F (7–18°C)
Carrots, parsnips, beets sweeten after frost. Storage roots can often overwinter in the ground under heavy mulch.
Container growing
Possible with the right cultivar
12+ in deep for full-size carrots and parsnips; 8 in deep is fine for radish and short carrots
Pick short or round cultivars (Parisian carrots, Chioggia beets) for shallow containers.
Succession planting
Radish every 2 weeks. Carrots and beets every 3–4 weeks spring through late summer.
Detailed harvesting
Loosen soil with a fork before pulling to prevent snapped tops. Twist off greens 1 in above the crown for storage; leave 1 in of stem on beets to prevent bleeding.
Post-harvest storage & preservation
Trim tops; store unwashed in damp sand or perforated bags in the fridge or root cellar at 32–40°F. Most root crops keep 3–6 months.
Culinary, medicinal & other uses
Fresh, roasted, fermented (kraut, kimchi), pickled. Tops of beets, radishes, and turnips are edible greens.
Medicinal or traditional uses are shared for interest only — this is not medical advice. Consult a qualified professional before using any plant medicinally.
Seed saving
Biennial and insect-pollinated. Root crops cross widely (carrots cross with Queen Anne's Lace).
1/2 mile in the open or use cage with introduced pollinators.
Overwinter the best roots; replant in spring; collect the dry umbels/seed stalks in year 2.
Your zone's planting calendar
Pick your USDA hardiness zone and we'll estimate the key dates for sweet potato in your area. These are regional averages — always check your own last-frost forecast before sowing.
My Murasaki Sweet Potato notes
Murasaki Sweet Potato seeds on hand
Track packets and loose seeds you already have. Private to your account.
Par level — leave at 0 for no alert. Anything below par shows on Seed Starting and your shopping list.
From your kitchen — grow sweet potato from what you already have
Grown from 'slips' — leafy shoots you sprout off a stored root. One grocery sweet potato gives 10–20 slips.
- 1Suspend a whole sweet potato half-in / half-out of a jar of water using toothpicks. Keep in a warm bright spot.
- 2In 4–6 weeks leafy sprouts appear on the top half. When shoots are 6 in tall with 3–4 leaves, twist them off at the base.
- 3Set the twisted-off slips in a glass of water 5–7 days until they grow roots.
- 4Plant rooted slips 4 in deep, 12 in apart, once soil is warm (65°F+).
Storage: Save one or two roots from harvest to sprout again next spring.
Order more seeds
Running low? Reorder from one of these seed stores.
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Other Sweet Potato varieties
Beauregard
100 daysThe standard grocery-store orange sweet potato — reliable, productive, stores well.
Georgia Jet
90 daysFastest-maturing — the best sweet potato for northern gardens.
Bonita
100 daysWhite-fleshed, tan-skinned — mild and creamy, less sweet than orange types.
Molokai Purple
120 daysDeep purple flesh from Hawaii — antioxidant powerhouse, striking on the plate.